re: Do you believe in an afterlife?

Nobody is worse than Dawkins. Just the epitome of smugness.

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Anyone who doesn’t believe that life has a creator clearly has no understanding/appreciation for how complex and unlikely life truly is.

Even given Earth’s 7B years, there is no reasonable scenario in which elements happened to form themselves just right in order to seed life.

Without guidance, there’s not even a legit possibility that a amino acids correctly found themselves in the proper orientation to create a single protein.

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If the history of science has taught one thing, it’s this: What can’t be explained today probably will be explained in the future and that it’s foolish to consider deities to fill the gaps.

How many times throughout history has Man resorted to a deity to explain some phenomenon only to have science catch up with the real explanation? Countless times. How many times has science given an explanation only to find out a deity was the real cause? Not one damn time.

Every generation thinks they’re living at the pinnacle of human knowledge and if we don’t know something today, well, gasp, it must have been a gawd. And if something is simply beyond our finite intellect (cows standing in a pasture in the rain will never understand why they’re getting soaked… but there’s a natural explanation for it nonetheless), then that must be a gawd too.

It’s incredibly short-sighted.

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Like if a person flatlines at a hospital there's been numerous accounts of the person telling the doctors word for word what they said, how many people came in the room, etc.

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flatlining means your heart stops. Your brain doesn't die for several minutes after.

A couple of months ago I was carrying some bags to my in-laws front door. I put bags down and I was about to put my key in door to open it and all of a sudden the door opened up about 6 inches. Like someone was on the other side cracking the door for someone. I walk in talking and I look around and no one is there. My mother-in-law was sitting on the couch in the livingroom reading newspaper. She was the only one in the house. I stood in the kitchen trying to rationalize what happened. It freaked me out

I believe there is Heaven and God and Jesus are there.

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Based on the answers so far, I'm in the minority, but I definitely believe in Heaven and Hell. One day we'll be judged by an Almighty God, and we'll end up either "on high," or "down below."

Because of my profession of faith in Jesus, I believe I'll be on high, and I hope all of you are there as well

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Ditto

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A couple of months ago I was carrying some bags to my in-laws front door. I put bags down and I was about to put my key in door to open it and all of a sudden the door opened up about 6 inches. Like someone was on the other side cracking the door for someone. I walk in talking and I look around and no one is there. My mother-in-law was sitting on the couch in the livingroom reading newspaper. She was the only one in the house. I stood in the kitchen trying to rationalize what happened. It freaked me out

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Must be ghosts, because clearly there is no other non supernatural explanation.

For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

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My teacher explained to me that that's why he believed those other 4 billion people have a chance at getting into Heaven, if it exists. The parable mentions nothing about being a believer in Christ or even God. It just talks about being a decent person. There are pretty easy counter arguments in scripture that one could use to dispute this belief, but there is a number of conflicting information in the Bible and it's a matter of interpretation. The answer gave me hope, so I ran with it, right or wrong.

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This is a great answer, and think it makes a ton of sense.

I think the Judeo-Christian society in the United States has set us up to be one of the most fiscally and accepting places on the planet, if not the most (despite what media outlets say).

But the idea that one could be born into the world, never understand or hear the "good word," and be sentenced to an eternity of suffering is incredibly flawed both logically and emotionally.

Are the Catholic Priests who diddled little kids really in favor to the lord more so than a practicing Buddhist with a virtuous life?

If the answer is a stern "yes," it's worth challenging the belief system we got here.

I strongly believe our consciousness survives bodily death. Great book if you're interested in the subject.

LINK